Finally, the cat is out of the bag. The Special Investigation
Team (SIT) set up by the Supreme Court to investigate the role of
Gujarat government and Chief Minister Narendra Modi in particular
in the communal riots of 2002 has in its closure report made some
telling points on the propaganda that has been unleashed for over a
decade against the BJP government in the state.

The findings may not be surprising as it was quite clear throughout
the last decade that some of the most powerful religious lobbies
were at full play to bring down the BJP government in Gujarat, and
their frustration at Modi’s invincibility election after election
was reason enough to employ various questionable tactics in the
courts of law.

First, the SIT report clearly mentions that neither Chief Minister
Narendra Modi nor the Gujarat government can be held for conspiracy
in the communal riots of 2002. This was the main charge levelled
against the state government by almost all the opponents in the
courts, including the social activists, political parties, riot
victims and even a section of the media.

The propaganda against the state government was so powerful that
even the media was carried away by it. Now it has come to light
that many of the social activists as well as the NGOs were directly
funded and supported by Muslim organisations and governments in
West Asia.

Though the feelings of the riot victims are understandable, the
NGOs used the tragedy to strike a chord with the victims, and
ultimately succeeded in making them play along as per their
agenda.

The second contentious point which has been cleared by the SIT
report is that there has been no laxity or negligence on the part
of the state government in controlling the raging riot following
the mass killing of Kar Sevaks in Godhra by a Muslim mob.

Only in the morning the Gujarat High Court had asked the state
government to pay for the repair of the shrines and mosques damaged
during the riots. The Supreme Court appointed SIT headed by ex-CBI
Director Dr RK Raghavan submitted the final report to the
magisterial court in the Gulbarg Society massacre case on
Wednesday.

This is the third independent investigation into the role of the
state government and its Chief minister in the Gujarat riots of
2002. All the three investigations have come to same conclusion
that neither the state government nor the chief minister can be
held culpable for the any kind of conspiracy or inaction during the
riots.

The findings which fly in the face of the propaganda of the NGOs
and state Opposition parties including the Congress make it amply
clear how the media reports have been completely swayed by personal
agenda of the activists. In case of Congress MP Ehsan Jafri who was
killed during the riots at his home, the SIT report states that
Narendra Modi had no prior knowledge or any inkling to the goings
on in the vicinity which led to the massacre.

Also, after the Godhra incident when the bodies of the Kar Sevaks
killed in the train burnt down by the mob were brought to Ahmedabad
city, the SIT report says that the government’s decision was right
as Godhra was not the right place to keep the dead bodies. Cold
storage facilities were available only in Ahmedabad. The victims
who died in the train belonged to Ahmedabad and it was the only
obvious for the government to bring the bodies to Ahmedabad. The
bodies of the Kar Sevaks were not paraded for any public display,
but were transported in the dead of night to prevent any adverse
reaction from the Hindu community, SIT avers.

All these measures go to show the sagacity of the state government
in controlling the situation and employing sensible ways of
administering a highly sensitive situation. Incidentally, during
the investigations Supreme Court even went to the extent of
withdrawing any monitoring of the investigations by the SIT because
it had complete faith in it.

But more than all the hype over the clean chit given by the Supreme
Court appointed and monitored SIT report was the frustration seen
in the NGO circles. When BJP members accused Teesta Setevad of
perjury, changing statements, producing false evidence and using
the victims’ misery for their personal agenda during a TV debate
Teesta Setelvad scurried out of the debate when she had no
argument. It was amusing to watch most TV debates with only state
government representatives and BJP members as the opposing side has
no one to represent them. The game was up and the bluff was finally
called by the SIT.